NYAPRS Note: The NYS Office of Mental Health has released the attached 124-slide presentation that summarizes recommendations they received from 1,700 individuals comprised of individuals with lived experience, family members, providers, community leadership and advocates, in 40 community engagement sessions that are intended to guide OMH’s distribution of Governor Kathy Hochul’s recently authorized $1 billion in new funds over the next 5 years. “This input is now helping to implement new programming and develop resources to enhance New York State’s mental health system. Above all, the input is helping guide the agency’s ongoing work to increase access, eliminate service gaps and promote equity throughout the state.” Feedback presented to the agency during these sessions often touched on similar subject matter, including workforce issues, outpatient care, services for school-aged children, discharge planning, housing, inpatient care, and insurance coverage. See attached.
OMH Commissioner Ann Sullivan will be discussing these recommendations and take more comments from a keynote session at NYAPRS’ upcoming Annual Conference. See program and registration details here.
Dear Colleagues:
The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) conducted a total of 40 Community Engagement Feedback Sessions throughout the state between February and April 2023. The purpose of these sessions was to hear from individuals with lived experience, families, providers, community leadership, and advocates to guide the implementation of Governor Hochul’s historic expansion of mental health services. Today we are pleased to share the results from those feedback sessions with you.
Attached please find an executive summary (attached and below) offering a brief overview of the results as well as a full slide deck that presents the detailed feedback collected, organized by theme and session location. These results are also available on the OMH website here: https://omh.ny.gov/omhweb/transforming-mental-health
As soon as the engagement sessions were completed, OMH began using the data collected to inform planning, program design, and implementation strategies for the mental health budget initiatives. Feedback was also used to guide decisions around procurement and OMH has posted our tentative procurement schedule and open procurement opportunities on our website here: https://omh.ny.gov/omhweb/rfp
Please stay tuned for future community engagement events. Your feedback has been instrumental in this planning, and we look forward to continuing these conversations as we work together to transform our mental health system. Thank you!
Best Regards,
Erica Van De Wal
Director, Office of Planning
New York State Office of Mental Health
44 Holland Avenue, Albany, NY 12229
Planning@omh.ny.gov
www.omh.ny.gov
Pronouns: she, her, hers